


Chains

by lobsterkaijin



Category: One Piece
Genre: F/M, Gender Roles, M/M, Marriage, Past Abuse, Past Child Abuse, Past Domestic Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-01
Updated: 2019-05-01
Packaged: 2020-02-10 21:47:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18669013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lobsterkaijin/pseuds/lobsterkaijin
Summary: He might be a little in over his head with this one.





	Chains

Masaomi has just finished his afternoon meditation session when Baby Five comes storming into the room and throws herself to the bed. While she’s busy being swallowed up by the comforter, Masaomi leans over the last of what’s visible and asks, “What’re you up to, friend?”

Whatever she responds with is lost to the swathes of fabric. He would ask her to repeat herself, except he catches a high-pitched whimper, and when her shoulders start shaking and he leans in to listen, he hears the unmistakable stuttering breaths of one who is sobbing. Bleeding sympathy, his heart flutters in his chest. Now who dares bring harm to a woman so fair? The bastard’s days will be counted like sheep, for should Masaomi come across such a fiend, he will put to permanent slumber. But until that day comes, he will be by Baby Five’s side, petting her head and keeping her company ‘til the pain subsides.

She sniffles and rubs at her eyes. They’re still puffy and red, and they’re directed at him like a lost child. What a pathetic little thing she is with her raven hair thrown about and her cheeks stained with her sorrow. He sits her up to clean the tear trails with his thumb.

“My my, Baby Five, what’s wr—”

“How can you deal with that asshole?!”

He blinks at her.

Her eyes begin to well up with tears again. “Th-The, the young master! He—!”

“Oh dear, please do not cry!” 

They’re already streaming down her face. His arms reach out for her, prepared for when she thrusts herself into his hold to cry into his shoulder. If it weren’t for the epaulette in the way, surely his jacket would be soaked. There’s a waning moment where her crying subsides, and just when he’s prepared to let her go, she feels the impending separation and begins to wail yet again. Two pats aren’t enough to get her to stop, meaning this is truly serious, so his hand rests on her back in the hopes that his levity will be transferred to her. Ah, women and their gelatin hearts! So easily wounded are they! Surely Master Doflamingo intended no harm and she has simply misunderstood! Yet that is the life of an older brother. He really should look out for his sisters more.

As the seconds turn to eons and he’s counting the number of diamonds on the floor for the tenth time, he swears he can hear a voice in his head, dusty and grey, begging him for release. How long has it been? She should be bones by now! Human bodies did not contain this much fluid and he knew from experience, yet still her eyes soldiered on. He will be in need of another destressing after this, if he ever tastes freedom again, that is.

He clears his throat. “My dear, why do you cry?”

Masaomi is so warm and so strong, and though she despises the thought of letting him go, she knows it is unseemly for her to hold another’s man like this. She repositions herself at an appropriate distance and wipes her tears herself this time.

“The young master killed Artie!”

“Arthur Montoya?” The image of a balding young man with the beak of a toucan comes to mind. “He had a unique way of holding your... hand.” In that it wasn’t her hand at all that he held. Masaomi had thought once or twice to ask the gentleman if he knew where a woman’s hands were located, but their relationship was a special one, and he felt it would be intruding. Now he laments the man’s passing. If only he’d taken Artie aside and spoken to him  _ mano e mano, _ then perhaps now he would be the one comforting Baby Five instead, and Masaomi might be somewhere much more delightful, such as the kitchen, where he knew they would be preparing the mille feuille for tonight’s dessert.

“He just doesn’t get it!” She crosses her arms. “He does these things without  _ asking _ me! It’s like he wants me to be miserable!”

“I’m certain that even in your anger you know in your heart he loves you dearly.”

“This is the sixth one!”

“Wow, you sure are popular!”

“That’s not the point!”

“There are plenty of men in the sea, my dear, and you are an attractive, bright, wonderful young woman. If you’ve already had six, then you will find the seventh by this time tomorrow! I am certain you will forget all about Artie!”

Baby Five sighs. “I don’t  _ just _ want a boyfriend...”

“O-ho?” He cocks his head. “Is there monetary compensat—”

She just barely misses slicing his throat open with a knife. “No! What do you take me for?!”

“I did not intend it like that, I swear it upon the heavens.” She retracts her weapon. Slowly. Masaomi falsely thinks he is in the clear, but then her eyes begin to gloss over. Not again! He cannot stop himself from grabbing her shoulders and shaking lightly. “Woman, get ahold of yourself! He is but a man!”

She shakes her head. “Oh Masaomi, he was not just any man, he was going to be my husband!” Her cheeks tinge pink. “Just thinking about getting to serve him and cook him dinner while I take care of our kids and make him happy, heehee! Maybe we’d have a quaint little house on a hill where we can see the mountains? Or maybe he’d take me away to a villa, wouldn’t that be something! I’d be useful to him and he’d never give me up! What a life! I’d never worry again! Don’t you see?  _ That _ is what the young master keeps taking away from me!”

Masaomi blanks.

Baby Five pauses her daydreaming, realizing she’s hit a brick wall. “What, haven’t you ever thought about being married?”

“Is  _ that _ what it means to be married?”

“Of course! There is no greater joy than faithfully serving your husband!”

No greater joy than in servitude? Submitting to the will of another, giving up your drive, ignoring your calling? To forever be trapped in a cage as a slave toiling away at work that will never end,  _ that _ is happiness? His lips curls in disgust and he pulls away from her at once. Her eyes goes wide. She reaches out for him and he shrugs her hand off.

That is what the Code of Bushido calls for, does it not? Service to thy household and thy master, but never to thyself. Your heart, your soul, your passion, your drive, never should you feed it before you’ve placed food on the table of others. And what has  _ servitude _ brought to his life? His mother, bless her heart, the kindest most generous soul, forever downcast eyes and a tiny voice. And him, nothing but a slap from his father and a night without dinner. Service to the other and not to thyself, the most ludicrous of all tenants. He is restless, pacing.

And then settles in the panic. Julien, oh! His heart, his soul, his sea and his sky! Julien is engaged! Passionate, ambitious, driven Julien, would he give up his dream? Did he seek to become a glorified house servant? Is that what it meant to be married? To destroy the man that you are to be the man that you are not?

A quaint little home on a hillside? Laughable! His home is vast, his home is the  _ world! _ And yet a husband would demand he be confined to but one room of that home? So strong is the call to the sea that to silence it he must be made deaf, yet a husband would force silence upon him so that he stay? Restless are these wings, yet a husband would clip those wings to forever ground him? What husband can claim to love him and then maim him? What man is worth the pain of early burial? There is not a one!

Just thinking about it makes his skin crawl violently. No. No! No, no,  _ no! _ Never! Chained to the ground, he will never be! A simpering little housewife, he will never be! And should there be any man who dares to force it upon him, then he shall find the nearest blade and  _ free himself. _

So here comes the conclusion. “Master Doflamingo is being  _ merciful _ in taking that away from you. He is protecting you from a fate most cruel!”

“What? How can you say that? It’s cruelty to take that away from me!”

“My dear, I must vehemently disagree.” She begins to argue but he places a finger on her lips, and the gravity of his gaze effectively hushes her. “ _ No, _ listen here, woman. You are wrong. I am adamant. You, precious sapphire that you are, whose value is immeasurable, are always going to outshine those which seek to diminish you. Never forget it, Baby Five! There are plenty joys greater than bowing at the feet of a man, and if  _ that _ is what marriage is, then I not only loathe it, but spit on the very concept!”

Spit on marriage? On the idea of her happiness? He was usually so sweet and kind, but something sinister had been triggered in him just then. She could see it. She wishes she hadn’t. There in his eyes, a darkness like ink drowning out the light. As afraid as she is, she attempts to speak. “But—”

“I do not wish to discuss it further.”

Baby Five opens her mouth but shuts it immediately. She cannot bring herself to challenge him again.


End file.
